J. Palmer Gaillard, Jr., Mayoral Papers, 1935-1978 Descriptive Summary Title and Dates: J. Palmer Gaillard, Jr., Mayoral Papers, 1935-1978 (bulk 1959-1975) Creator: J. Palmer Gaillard, Jr., Mayor of the City of Charleston, 1959-1975 Quantity: 54 folders (0.75 cubic foot) and 30 rolls of microfilm Forms of Material: Correspondence, minutes, invoices, resolutions, plats, maps, photographs, reports, printed material, contracts, applications, newspaper clippings Processed by: Rebecca Schultz, 2017 Location: 01-A-017 and MM-4-7 (Rolls MAY.GAI.001 through MAY.GAI.030) Series List: Series I: Physical Records Series II: Microfilmed Records Abstract The collection consists of both physical and microfilmed records of J. Palmer Gaillard, Jr., mayor of the City of Charleston from 1959-1975. The records primarily contain correspondence, reports, and minutes related to Gaillard’s mayoral administration. Also present in the records are invoices, resolutions, plats, maps, photographs, contracts, applications and other printed material. Biography J. Palmer Gaillard, Jr., was born in Charleston in 1920 to J. Palmer Gaillard, Sr., and Eleanor Lucas Gaillard. Prior to the Civil War the Gaillard family was among the planter class. His 1 J. Palmer Gaillard Mayoral Papers, 1935-1978 | City of Charleston father’s family operated Belmont Plantation in what is now Orangeburg, while his mother’s family owned Hopsewee Plantation in Georgetown. His paternal great-grandfather, Col. Peter Charles Gaillard played a role in politics as the thirty-eighth mayor of the City Charleston, a position he held from 1865 until his removal from office by federal forces in 1868. Gaillard’s family lost much of its wealth after the war, and Gaillard matured among humble circumstances during the Great Depression. He attended the Crafts School, a free grade school for children founded by William Crafts. He went on to graduate from Charleston High School in 1938. Gaillard never attended college, instead gaining employment as clerk at the Miners and Merchants Bank on Broad Street. He worked for the bank until joining the Navy on December 9, 1941, in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Gaillard remained in military service as a pilot for the duration of World War II. Upon returning to Charleston, Gaillard worked for his father and brother’s surveying business, which was busy laying out new subdivisions in the area. The housing market in Charleston was booming at the time, and Gaillard decided to take advantage of this by opening the Seaboard Lumber and Supply Company in 1947. In 1951 Gaillard ran for City Council at the behest of Mayor William McG Morrison’s administration. His campaign was victorious, and he went on to serve two terms as city alderman. During his second term on City Council, Gaillard became disillusioned by what he viewed as poor financial management by Morrison’s administration. In 1958, with the backing of several prominent members of the community including Sen. T. Allen Legare and former mayor, Thomas P. Stoney, Gaillard ran for and won the election for mayor of Charleston. Gaillard went on to win reelection three times, serving as mayor until he resigned in 1975 in order to accept the post of Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Reserve Affairs under President Gerald Ford. 1 Mayoral Administration During Mayor Gaillard’s administration both Charleston and the nation as a whole experienced a series of sweeping social, political, and economic changes. Gaillard viewed expansion of the city’s boundaries, and the expanding tax base it would create, as a solution to the city’s financial woes. Residents of outlying areas including West Ashley and James Island desired the amenities and services offered by incorporation into a larger city. The city’s boundary thus grew significantly during the 1960s. One of the most pressing issues to face Charleston concerned the push for racial equality and an end to segregation. Leaders of the local NAACP first requested the integration of the City of Charleston Municipal Golf Course during the Morrison administration, but the issue did not come to a head until Gaillard’s first year in office. Although some of the city’s most vocal white residents urged resistance, after consultation with the city’s legal team, Gaillard consented to 1 For more on Gaillard’s life and work see: Gaillard, J. Palmer, Jr., Board to Boardrooms: The Life and Memoirs of J. Palmer Gaillard, Jr., (Charleston, SC: Self-Published, 2004). 2 J. Palmer Gaillard Mayoral Papers, 1935-1978 | City of Charleston integration of the golf course. Other public facilities, including city courts, parks, and the library, soon followed suit. Despite his role in the integration of public facilities, Gaillard steadily refused to play any part in issues of integration as they related to state-run facilities or private businesses. In 1963 civil rights activists led a series of demonstrations and protests designed to impel desegregation in all areas of public space. Protesters flooded the streets, blocking intersections and access to many local businesses. While Gaillard previously chose to remain uninvolved in racial issues, he recognized the need to act in order to prevent violent confrontations, which had begun to break out across the city. After gaining an injunction against protesters and enlisting the help of state police, Gaillard met with white businessmen and black community leaders to foster a compromise. Before long, many local business owners agreed to desegregation of their facilities and equal treatment of customers. In subsequent years, interracial committees formed to address issues of racial accord. Local schools gradually began the process of integration. Rivers High School in Charleston became the first public school in the state to desegregate in September 1963. Despite advances in the fight for equality, racial tensions again became strained during the 1969 labor strikes of African American hospital workers at the South Carolina Medical College Hospital (now MUSC) and city garbage men over long hours, as well as unequal treatment and pay. Gaillard worked with Governor Robert McNair and black civic leaders to broker a deal, although an agreement in the hospital workers’ strike was only reached after the intervention of federal mediators. Although slow to champion the cause, Gaillard did his part to foster racial equality by supporting the election of African Americans to public office including St. Julian Devine, who, in 1968, became the first black city councilman since Reconstruction, and Richard E. Fields, a lawyer and civil rights activist who was elected to the position of associate municipal court judge for the City of Charleston in 1969.2 Under Gaillard’s leadership, the city underwent several major public improvement projects. Road improvement plans included the extension of Lockwood Drive, along with the creation of a new yacht basin. The connection of Lockwood Drive with Broad Street, the Ashley River Bridges, and soon-to-be completed Interstate 26 allowed for better traffic flow from West Ashley onto the Peninsula. A second major roads project involved the construction of the Pearman Bridge over the Cooper River. Other major projects included significant improvements to the Municipal Airport, the establishment of Brittlebank Park, the construction of a new police station on Lockwood Drive, and the construction of the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium. 2 For more information on the Civil Rights Movement in Charleston see: Fraser, Walter J., Jr., Charleston! Charleston! The History of a Southern City, (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1989). Also see: Fink, Leon and Brian Greenberg, Upheaval in the Quiet Zone: A History of Hospital Workers’ Union, Local 1199, (Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1989). 3 J. Palmer Gaillard Mayoral Papers, 1935-1978 | City of Charleston Scope and Content Notes The collection is divided into two series, physical records and microfilmed records relating to the mayoral administration of J. Palmer Gaillard. Within each series the records are arranged alphabetically in relation to subject matter or the originating individual, organization or department. Please note that the bulk of the collection is available only on microfilm. The microfilm collection was produced in 2001. When the collection was initially processed and filmed, it was with the understanding that the original files would be destroyed due to space concerns. The remaining physical papers were most likely culled from other record groups and, over time, compiled into a semblance of a collection. Order was artificially imposed on both the microfilm and paper series. Mayor Gaillard’s administration occurred during a time of growth and expansion, which saw periods of intense political and social unrest. Researchers seeking to study the city’s expansion will find interest in files pertaining to the annexation of outlying areas, the Bushy Park Authority, the Municipal Airport, the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, and road developments. Changes to the city’s organization and policies are also evident in records related to the expansion of the Parks and Playgrounds Department and development of a plan for preservation of the Old Historic District. Researchers of African American history and American social and political history will find a plethora of information related to the Civil Rights Movement, labor strikes, and desegregation in Charleston. Of particular interest are communications between Gaillard and religious and civic leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, including Mamie E. Garvin Fields and the Catholic Bishop, the Most Reverend Francis F. Reh. Also apparent from the records is the anger and hostility of many whites to the African American quest for equality. Note to Researchers: Not all microfilmed folders are listed in the finding aid. Where several folders of the same subject heading follow one another, only the frame number for the first folder is listed. Many folders were filmed in reverse chronological order. Thus a set of folders spanning 1960-1975, may begin with December 1975 and end with January of 1960.